A fine Eastern Pende Panya-Gombe African mask. Coll.: David Norden
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Baltimore Museum of Art For the 13th consecutive year, the Baltimore Museum of Art will celebrate
African culture and highlight its extensive collection of African art with
its annual African Spirit Series. |
Led by Sonya Clark, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, participants in the Beaded Prayers event will learn about the history of amulet and bead traditions in Africa and create beaded fabric packets that contain a written prayer or wish. The exhibit of the Beaded Prayers Project travels internationally, presenting about 4,000 beaded prayer packets fashioned by workshop participants. The exhibit grows with every workshop. Clark, who lives in Baltimore and Madison, Wis., has conducted more than 100 workshops since the project began in 1999. |
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For Clark, the project began with a grant to bring art into communities that
don't traditionally experience art. When she linked the history of the word
"bead" to an Old English word meaning "prayer," she combined
the idea of beaded artwork with prayer traditions to create the collaborative
art project.
Although the workshop represents an African amulet-making tradition, hidden or
secret prayers are a tradition shared by many cultures, and participants are as
diverse as the packets they contribute, Clark said.
The African Spirit Series' next event is a high-energy African dance-and-drum
performance by the Umoja African Arts Company next Saturday at 4 p.m.
Ten dancers and drummers from the Pittsburgh nonprofit group will present a
performance of "explosive music and descriptive dance" called Bokoko,
which means "cultural inheritance" in the Lingala language of Central
Africa, said Umoja's managing director, LaVette Malloy Smith.
Kasa Panzu, the artistic director of Umoja, choreographed the Bokoko performance
as a combination of dances and music from Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal and South
Africa that celebrate themes ranging from freedom and hard work to the spirit of
youth.
The Bokoko performance is an homage to African ancestors for skills, knowledge
and culture passed down through generations, Smith said.
The Spirit Series will culminate in a presentation Jan. 17-18 of eight films
from the New York African Film Festival's national traveling exhibit. Other
series events include Namu Lwanga of Uganda in a storytelling session and a
Kwanzaa family day, featuring quilting demonstrations, stories, dance and guided
tours of the BMA.
According to museum spokeswoman Kateri Harried, the BMA's African art
collection is composed of more than 2,000 pieces, including dance headdresses,
ritual art and textiles from sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Egypt .
For a full schedule of the Spirit Series events, visit www.artbma.org
Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun
BALTIMORE
- The Baltimore Museum of Art is bringing African
art into the light.
The exhibit, titled Meditations on African Art: Light, is the first in a three-part series that will examine the use of light, color and pattern in the objects of the BMA’s African art collection.
read : Illuminating African art
Maiden
Siprit Mask (Mukuyi). Early 20th Century. Punu, Gabon. The Baltimore Museum of
Art: Gift of Alan Wurtzburger, BMA 1954.145.63Meditations on African Art Colors
April 18–August 19, 2007 Free exhibition
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